Heat Wave Shatters Records in Europe

The UK smashed a century-old temperature record for the second time in 24 hours on Tuesday as a spring heat wave continued to scorch parts of Western Europe, per the AP. Several drownings were reported in Britain and France as people tried to cool down.

• A temperature of 35.1 Celsius (95.2 Fahrenheit) was recorded at London's Kew Gardens, breaking the 34.8 C (94.6 F) record set a day earlier at Kew. The provisional readings smashed the long-standing record of 32.8 C (91.4 F) set in 1922 and matched in 1944.
• London also recorded a rare "tropical night," defined as one in which the temperature does not fall below 20 C (68 F).
• Records also fell in France, where temperatures reached 36 C (97 F) on Monday in the country's southwest and widely remained above 20 C (68 F) at night. A French government spokesperson said there have been at least seven deaths potentially related to high temperatures, including five drownings and two deaths in sports competitions.

• The national weather service, Météo-France, said a "heat dome," with heat held in place by a high-pressure weather front, was producing temperatures more than 10 C (50 F) above what is usual for this time of year.
• The unseasonable heat extended to Spain. Seville hit 38 C (100 F) over the weekend, while large parts of the Iberian Peninsula saw temperatures 5 to 10 degrees Celsius higher than normal.
• And in Rome, temperatures were expected to reach 32 C (89.6 F) on Tuesday.
• "We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that heat wave events such as this have been made more likely and more severe due to climate change arising from our emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases," said Peter Thorne, director of the ICARUS Climate Research Centre, at Maynooth University, in Ireland. "But, nevertheless, many of the records being set, particularly in the UK and France, are mind-bogglingly crazy."